Burglars caught passed out at crime scene

SACRA­MENTO — Note to burglars — don’t fall asleep out­side the place you just bur­glar­ized with your ve­hi­cle full of the loot.

A pair of 17-year-olds in the Cen­tral Cal­i­for­nia com­mu­nity of Win­ton were ar­rested and re­leased to the cus­tody of their par­ents on Fri­day af­ter pass­ing out in a haze of mar­i­juana smoke out­side of a con­struc­tion site, their blue SUV packed with cop­per wires and other items from the prop­erty, po­lice said.

The youths also had a loaded gun, which in­ves­ti­ga­tors de­ter­mined had been stolen in March of this year, said Ja­son Goins, Un­der­sh­er­iff for the Merced County Sher­iff’s De­part­ment.

They were spot­ted in their car by a sher­iff’s deputy shortly af­ter mid­night on Fri­day, Goins said.

“There was a strong odor of mar­i­juana com­ing from the ve­hi­cle,” Goins said. “They were passed out and he had to wake them up.”

The youths, whom Goins said were gang mem­bers, were ar­rested on sus­pi­cion of par­tic­i­pat­ing in a crim­i­nal street gang, possess­ing stolen prop­erty and hav­ing a loaded firearm in the ve­hi­cle.

“We’ve run across it be­fore — peo­ple who are in­tox­i­cated or high on drugs passed out at the scene,” Goins said. “It’s not com­mon but it does hap­pen.” — Reuters